Donald Cerrone has never lost two fights in a row. In a 26-fight professional career, that’s a solid accomplishment, especially when you look at the frequency and the quality of opponent Cerrone has faced during his time with the WEC and UFC.
When Cerrone entered the Octagon at UFC 160, he was not only facing K.J. Noons, but the prospect of two straight defeats after falling to Anthony Pettis in his last outing.
After assaulting Noons for 15 minutes, Cerrone had his hand raised in victory. Cerrone dominated the fight from start to finish and left a significant amount of Noons’ blood splattered across the mat, adding to the gore fest that the fight card had become.
The victory served notice to the lightweight division. The fighter known to the world as “Cowboy” was not going to let the defeat at the hands of Pettis keep him down for long. Cerrone shook off that defeat, put it in the past and came back with a statement win over Noons.
No, it didn’t earn him another “Fight Night” bonus to add to his growing collection, but that wasn’t due to lack of effort. After all, according to FightMetric, Cerrone’s 78 significant strikes landed during the bout were the most landed on an action-packed fight card.
So where does the win leave Cerrone? A glance at the UFC Rankings puts him at No. 6 in the lightweight division behind Gilbert Melendez, Anthony Pettis, T.J. Grant, Josh Thomson and Gray Maynard.
We know that Grant has earned the next shot at lightweight champion Benson Henderson, so that bout is out of the question for Cerrone. Pettis is going to face Jose Aldo at UFC 163 in a featherweight title bout, so that rematch is a no-go.
Melendez and Maynard are both coming off losses, so those fights, while possible, don’t make a lot of sense. That leaves Josh Thomson, the fighter who knocked out Nate Diaz in April.
When the topic of Thomson was brought up at the UFC 160 post-fight press conference, Cerrone did not hesitate to say, “Absolutely, why not. I’ll fight anybody. Give me when and where, and I’m game for whoever, but that definitely makes sense. It would be a fun fight.”
The fight makes sense for both fighters as well as for the UFC. Two veteran fighters with a combined 29 stoppage victories between them facing off for a chance to fight for UFC gold, that’s a fight that fans will want to see and one that Cerrone is already looking forward to. Cerrone is correct; that would be a fun fight.
Will the UFC matchmaking team agree?
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